I'm Dying! Please bring ice cream
by Eileen
Summary: CHAPTER 7 UPLOADED Yay, it's finished! Please read and review.
1. Part 1

I'm Dying! (please bring ice cream) 

(DISCLAIMER:_ All the characters except the doctor belong to Marvel Comics and Kids WB.)_  
(A/N: big thanks to my writing partner Chris, who wrote approximately half of what you see here.)

  
"You are not dying!" Mystique screamed at the closed bedroom door. A hand-lettered sign on it read:  
  
**I'M DYING  
I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME  
  
(P.S. I need more ice cream)  
**  
"Yes, I am!" Todd Tolensky insisted.   
"If you were dying you wouldn't be yelling that loudly!"  
"How do you know? You're not a doctor!"  
"No, I'm a person with a brain, which is more than I can say for you!" Mystique stomped down the stairs and into the living room, where the other three Brotherhood boys sat on the couch, watching TV. "Pay no attention to the little hypochondriac. Maybe he'll get the message."  
"What about his ice cream?" Lance asked. Ice cream was the only thing Todd could keep down right now.  
"Let him get his own ice cream! He's faking to get sympathy!"  
"No he isn't," Fred insisted. "He's got a fever, I checked. And inside his throat is all red. That's why he needs the ice cream."  
"He's being a big baby about it!"  
_Oh yeah?_ Lance thought. _He's not the one stomping around and screaming at the top of his lungs._

No one noticed, in all the confusion, that Pietro was just sitting there, not making a sound.  
He had taken some cold medicine about an hour before, and it was making him spacey. It always made him feel spaced out--not exactly high (as he understood it, high was a **good** feeling), but not all there.  
But if it was a choice between feeling spacey and coughing his lungs out, he'd take the spaciness any day.

He couldn't quite be sure where or when he'd gotten sick....

All he knew for sure was that . . .   
_I want my Daddy._

"He's exaggerating, then!" Mystique was saying, of Toad. "Remember when he insisted he had appendicitis? And it turned out to be indigestion?"

"What if he's serious this time?" Fred insisted. "This could be the one time when he really means it."  
"He is not dying!" Mystique threw her hands in the air and headed off toward the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"What does it take to calm him down?" Mystique grumbled.

**How** had she ended up here? Playing housemother to a bunch of delinquents who demanded every ounce of her attention? It wasn't fair! She didn't ask for this!  
Sometimes she thought about just running away. Getting in the car and just driving off, never coming back. It would serve the little brats right.

But if she did that, she realized, the X-men would be all over her like flies on a trash pile....

Not to mention . . . **him**.  
If she left, he'd hunt her down to the ends of the earth. There would be no peace . . .  
Somewhere upstairs, a bicycle horn honked.  
_What was that I was saying about no peace?_  
She stomped out of the kitchen to the bottom of the stairs, for the moment forgetting about dinner, which was beginning to burn.  
"** WHAT?**" she shouted up the stairs.  
A ball of paper flew down and hit her in the head. She'd get him for that later.  
_Where's my ice cream?_  
"I'll give you ice cream," Mystique muttered under her breath. "Oh, I'll give you--"  
The fire alarm went off.

She didn't smell any smoke, but she did notice...

the frying pan was on fire!  
Grabbing a potholder, she wrapped it around the handle and dumped the pan into the sink, then turned the water on. There was a hissing sound, and clouds of steam.

"I'm going to kill you, Toad."she muttered....

"So we're getting pizza again?"  
The boys had followed her in from the living room. They stood just behind her, looking at the smoking mess that had almost been dinner.  
Mystique sighed. "Yes, I guess so."

_Unless one of you mooks wants to cook dinner._  
Which was a scary thought--none of them could cook anything more complicated than macaroni and cheese.   
_I ought to ask about hiring a maid._  
"Who wants to make the phone call?" Mystique asked. "And we're only getting **two** pizzas this time! I'm not made of money!"  
"Aw!" Fred whined. He could eat two whole pizzas by himself. "I'll starve!"  
"Yeah, you're just wasting away," Lance teased him. He made the call on the kitchen phone, which had the number of the nearest pizza place on speed dial.  
"I'm going to my room," Pietro said. "Call me when dinner's here."

"HEY!"Todd protested.

"Get back to bed, you little faker!" Mystique shouted at him. "It's your fault dinner's ruined! If you hadn't been honking that stupid horn, I wouldn't have let it burn!"  
"Maybe you just can't cook!"  
"THAT'S IT!"

Toad recoiled from her anger....

But before she could hit him, the doorbell rang.  
"Wow, that was fast." She went to the door, grabbing her purse on the way (have to remember to leave the guy a big tip after what happened last time), and opened the door.  
"I hope you brought the--"  
It wasn't the pizza man.

It was someone from the school.

Mystique quickly changed into her Ms. Darkholme persona. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Well, Ms.Darkholme... I have some forms for you to fill out . . ." 

Mystique rolled her eyes and sighed. Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow?

Someone was banging on the wall upstairs. Gee, who could it be?  
"Just leave them," she said. "I'll bring them in with me tomorrow."  
"But I need--"

"A life." Mystique interrupted as she slammed the door in his face and thought of some creative ways to kill Toad.

"You are in a lot of trouble now!"

"ME? What did I do?" Toad moaned.

"What didn't you do?"  
The doorbell rang. The pizza was finally here.  
"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." Mystique stomped out of the room, cursing Toad under her breath.

Toad winced at Mystique's anger....

"Why is it always my fault?" he moaned to himself. "I've never done anything to her, and she hates me! That's it, I'm not getting her a Mother's Day present!"

"I'm not your mother!" Mystique screamed up the stairs. Under her breath she muttered, "Thank God. I'd kill myself."  
The pizza kid was just standing there, waiting to be paid.  
"Oh, I'm sorry. How much was it again?"  
"Fifteen ninety-five."  
"Okay, I know I've got a twenty in here . . . at least I **had** a twenty in here. WHO'S BEEN STEALING MONEY FROM MY PURSE?"

No answer. So Mystique asked again....

**"WHICH ONE OF YOU IDIOTS HAS BEEN STEALING FROM ME? I WANT AN ANSWER NOW!"**  
"Who do you think it is?" Lance snapped. "He steals from everybody else, why not you?"

"Hey!"Toad protested.

"Aren't you supposed to be upstairs?"  
"Not if you're gonna keep talking trash about me! Sides, looks like I'm gonna have to get my own ice cream. Nobody wants to help a poor little dying little boy . . ."  
THWACK! "Oops!" Mystique said. "My hand must have slipped."

"Yeah, right!"

"Will you get upstairs before I throw something at you?"  
"But--"  
"NO buts! Go! Now!"  
He went.  
Mystique sighed. "Oh-kay. I need some plates to put this on. Get the plastic ones, so you don't break any more. And somebody go tell Speedy Gonzales dinner's ready."

"I'm gonna kill that kid."Pietro grumbled under his breath....

His head was hurting so bad it felt like it was about to fall off. And his cough had come back.  
Eating? He didn't feel like eating at all. Should he even bother going to dinner?

Meanwhile, Toad was plotting his revenge on Mystique.

In the next room, Fred and Lance were busy dividing up the pizza.  
"Shouldn't one of us go get Pietro?" Fred asked.  
"Oh, okay." Lance went upstairs (trying to ignore the mutterings from Todd's room) and knocked on Pietro's door. "Yo, Petey boy! Dinner!"  
There was a very unpleasant sound. It was like a car starting up on a cold morning.

It took a minute for Lance to realize that the sound was someone coughing.  
"You okay?" he asked.  
The door opened. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm getting a cold or something."

Toad, of course, was still carrying on nonstop.... but nobody paid any attention to him.

Pietro felt a weird, mushy sensation in his stomach....

_Oh, no. Oh, please, God, no--_  
The worst thing that could possibly happen, happened just then.  
"I'm sorry.," he muttered.  
"That's okay," Lance said. "I was gonna wash these clothes anyway."

"HEY!"Toad yelled." DYING PERSON OVER HERE! HELLO?"

"Not now, Todd!" Lance shouted. To Pietro he said, "You feeling okay? Really?"  
"It's nothing. Don't worry about me."  
"You don't look so good."  
"I said I'm okay!"

That didn't stop Toad from hurling various objects into the hall.  
Mystique came stomping up the stairs. "I've had just about enough of you! Stop this right now!"  
"But I'm--"  
"You are not dying! What do I have to do to get it through to you?"  
"Call a doctor."

Are you insane? Don't answer that. You think I have money for a doctor? You're fine! You don't need to see a doctor! Now shut up and leave me in peace!"  
  


She stomped out of the room and slammed the door, muttering to herself.  
"Sick and tired of your whining . . . you think I have nothing better to do than listen to you complain all night?"

They all flinched... which was pretty much normal behavior around here.  
"What's **your** problem?" Mystique demanded of Pietro and Lance.  
"Well, actually--" Lance began, but Pietro cut him off.  
"Nothing! Just going to get some pizza now. Okay?"

Lance pulled back and turned his attention back to Toad. "Maybe you better just rest a while. Save your strength."

"What strength?" Toad groaned.

"Just lie still and be good for a while, okay?"  
Toad nodded.  
"Good. I'll be back to check on you later."

"Could I have more ice cream too?"

Lance sighed.  
"Okay. I'll bring some up to you. If there's any left, that is."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Lance went back downstairs, only to find . . .

Fred cleaning out the refrigerator.

"I guess there's no pizza left," Lance sighed.  
He heard that awful car-starting sound from behind him, and turned around.  
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked Pietro, who was sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, coughing his lungs out.

"Yes."Pietro insisted impatiently.

"You should take something."  
"I took something. It's worn off already. One of the drawbacks of a fast metabolism."

"Is there anything else you can try?"

"I could shoot myself in the head. That would make it go away."  
"Yeah, and everything else, too."  
Mystique came in, looking for something. "Have any of you seen the roll of duct tape that was in the junk drawer?"  
"Uh . . . " Lance, Pietro, and Fred all looked at each other, not knowing what to say. The duct tape's disappearance was part of a wild weekend that also involved Silly String, toilet paper, and a goat. (It was best not to ask too many questions.)  
"Never mind. I'll use the electrical tape." She slammed the drawer shut and went back upstairs.

"I'm going to kill them all one these days." she grumbled." I'm just going to take an AK-47 and gun every last one of them down, starting with Toad..."

"That was weird," Fred said. Then he went back to raiding the fridge.

"Don't start with me." Mystique snapped at Magneto as they passed each other in the hallway." I'm not in the mood."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm still dying!" Toad called out, to whomever might be listening.  
Mystique pointed in his direction. "** That's** what I've had to deal with all day. I'm getting sick and tired of it!"  
"Is he really dying?"  
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious? Do you think he'd be yelling that loudly if he were dying? He's just trying to get more ice cream."

"But I AM dying!" Toad insisted indignantly. "Why won't anybody believe me?"

"Because you're faking?"  
The doorbell rang again.  
"What is this, Grand Central Station?" Mystique grumbled as she went to answer the door.

"HEY! I'M NOT FAKING!"

"Yes, you are!" she shouted up the stairs. She made herself presentable again, then opened the door. "Can I help you?"  
"Hi," the man on her doorstep said. "I've just moved into the neighborhood. I'm Doctor Ryan . . ."  
"A doctor?"  
"Yes, ma'am--"  
"A **medical** doctor?"  
"Yes, I'm a pediatrician, actually, and--"  
She took the hand he had extended and pulled him into the house.

"You're just in time!"

"In time for what?" The doctor looked bewildered.  
Mystique explained all about Toad as she led Dr. Ryan upstairs. "He's driving me crazy! If you could just convince him that he's not dying, maybe he'll stop whining for a while."  
"Okay, I'll see what I can do. But I don't normally make house calls--"  
"I'll pay you double, in cash, right now, if you just SHUT HIM UP!"

"Tell her I'm dying!" Toad insisted. "She won't believe me! Nobody believes me!"

"I'll be the judge of that." The doctor opened his bag and took out several instruments. As he began to look Todd over, Mystique left the room.  
Magneto was still hanging around; she didn't know why.

Toad gave Lance a dirty look... which he couldn't see, being on the other side of the door.  
The examination didn't take too long. It was fairly obvious that Todd wasn't dying.  
"I'm not?" he complained.  
"No, you're not," the doctor said. "At worst, it's nothing more than a bad cold. I'll leave a prescription with your mother."  
_Mother?_  
As the doctor left the room, he could hear something from the next room, that didn't sound too good.  
He nudged the door open slightly.  
"How long have you had that cough?"

"Two . . . days?" Pietro said.  
"Mind if I take a look?"

"Hey!"Toad yelled. "I need more ice cream here!"

Mystique was at her wits' end. She stormed into his room and slammed the ice cream container over the boy's head.  
**"THERE!"** she shouted. **"THERE'S YOUR $^&@! ICE CREAM! NOW SHUT UP OR I'LL KILL YOU!"**  
She went back downstairs and found the doctor waiting for her.  
"He's not dying, is he?" she asked.  
Dr. Ryan looked worried. "Todd? No. He just has a cold. It's the other boy I'm concerned about."  
"Other boy?"  
"The one with the cough."  
"I think he means Pietro," Lance offered helpfully.  
"What's wrong with Pietro?" Mystique asked. Now she understood why Magneto was there. Had she been so busy chasing around after Ice Cream Boy that she hadn't recognized real illness when it was right in front of her?  
"I won't be absolutely certain without further tests, but right now it looks like either bronchitis or pneumonia. We have to get him admitted to the hospital right away."

You could have heard a pin drop in that room.

"Well," Mystique said finally, "looks like we're going to the hospital."  
"WHAT ABOUT ME?"  
"What **about** you?" Lance shouted upstairs.  
"WHO'S GONNA WATCH ME?"  
"Watch you do what? You haven't done anything but beg for more ice cream!"  
"I can't help it! My throat hurts really bad!"  
"So stop yelling all the time!"  
"I'M NOT YELLING!"

It was all Mystique could do to keep from hitting Toad. "I should just hand you over to the X-Men right now.," she snapped.

"Not now. We don't have time."

"You're right." Mystique said, giving Toad a look that could have melted solid steel. "We need to get Pietro to the hospital at once."  
"But my ice cream...."Toad moaned.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR STUPID ICE CREAM? THAT'S ALL I'VE HEARD TONIGHT IS I WANT ICE CREAM, I WANT ICE CREAM! YOU WANT IT SO BAD, GET IT YOURSELF!"

Toad flinched...

Mystique just stormed out. Everyone went with her, leaving Todd all alone.  
Alone . . .   
"Hey! What about me? Don't leave me--"

The only answer he got was the thud of a door slamming.


	2. Part 2

Part 2 

Nearly an hour later, they were still waiting for the test results. Mystique wouldn't have minded so much if her pager hadn't gone off every 30 seconds. She ignored it, knowing it was Toad seeking attention.  
Finally the doctor came out and addressed the group.

"Well?" Lance demanded.

"We're going to have to keep him overnight for observation. But we've started him on antibiotics, so he should be all right."

"Observation?"

"Once the antibiotics start working, he'll be okay. I'll give you all the details when he's ready to go home."  
"Can we see him?" Mystique asked.  
"Not just yet."

"Why not?" Fred demanded.

"I'm not sure he's up to it yet. He's very weak. If you hadn't brought him in when you did . . ."  
"What?" Lance asked.

"Pietro might be dead now..."Mystique and the others were horrified to hear that...

"I didn't realize it was that serious," Mystique said. She felt guilty for not noticing something so important.  
"If left untreated, it is."  
"He never said a word to any of us about being sick. Why would he keep it a secret like that?"

"He wanted to," Lance said," but _somebody_ wouldn't give him the chance..."

As if on cue, Mystique's pager went off again.  
"Excuse me," she said to a passing nurse. "Could you please flush this down the toilet?"

The nurse looked at her strangely.

"Or take it out to the parking lot and run it over with your car, or something."  
_I am going to KILL him!_ she thought. But that was if they ever got out of here.

"Hey!"Toad moaned in protest back at the house." Don't cut me off like that! I need my ice cream!" He started dialing Mystique's cell phone number again....

Now her phone was ringing.  
_I'm going to kill him,_ she thought again. _Right now! I'm going to get in my car, drive home, and kill him with my bare--_  
The doctor was looking at her expectantly.  
"I'm sorry?" she said.  
"I said you can go in now."

"Thank you." Mystique sighed in relief.

Pietro looked so small lying in the hospital bed, tubes sticking out of him. Again Mystique wondered how she could have missed something so serious, when it was obvious to anyone with eyes.  
And the first words out of his mouth were, "How's Todd?"

"We left him back at the house." Lance said. "He's fine."  
"Oh. Good."  
"Listen, your father's here . . ."  
"You called him?" Pietro tried to sit up, but he was too weak.

"Yeah."

"Why?"  
Lance shrugged. "Cause I knew you needed help. I figured maybe he could talk some sense into you."

"Hey!"

"How long were you going to go on pretending everything was okay? We might have found you dead in bed tomorrow morning!"

"Well, I..."

"Never mind. It's not important now."  
The two boys just looked at each other for a long time.

Back at the house, Toad would not give up!  
He called the hospital and had Mystique paged. She took forever to come to the phone for some reason.  
**"WHAT?"** she demanded.  
"Do you think, on your way home, you could get some--"  
She hung up on him.  
He called back.

Toad called again...

This time, she didn't pick up. She was so annoyed with him she couldn't think! She stalked the hospital corridors, having an angry conversation with . . . herself.  
"You only think of yourself, don't you? Oh, yes! The world will end if you don't get your @#$% ice cream! Never mind that someone may **really** be dying! Why do you have to make such a big thing out of everything?"

People gave her strange looks. She ignored them.

Finally Lance told her she could go in now.  
She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Pietro?"

He looked up as she came in.   
"I'm sorry about--"  
"No, **I'm** sorry," she said. "I should have been paying more attention to what was going on. "  
"I should have told you."  
"I think you tried, but I didn't want to listen."  
They looked at each other a long moment.

Unfortunately, the moment was disrupted by yet another call from Toad...

"That's it!"

"Want me to kill Toad?" Lance asked her.

"Don't tempt me."  
_I should just throw him out,_ she thought. _I took pity on him and took him in, and I could send him back where I found him like THAT!_  
"Are you okay?" Pietro asked her.   
"I'm just having a few homicidal feelings toward a certain amphibian pest, but don't let that bother you."

"Homicidal?"

"I'm trying to decide if it's worth killing Toad or not."

"Why not just hand him over to the X-Geeks?"

"Because . . ." Actually, she couldn't think of a reason.

For the rest of the night, her phone didn't ring. Earlier, she might have found that peaceful; now it was eerie.

Toad, meanwhile, anxiously paced around the house waiting for his ice cream. He couldn't understand why Mystique had blown up at him like that....

Then he noticed one of the windows was open.  
Had it been open before? He didn't think so, but he hadn't been paying attention before--  
A dark shadow jumped out at him and grabbed him.

He counterattacked and... the shadow knocked him out.  
  
By the time Mystique and the other boys came home, the house was empty.

(Ooh, cliffhanger! Not to worry, Chris and I are working very hard on Part 3! See you soon!)


	3. Part 3

Part 3 

"You suppose maybe Toad did us a favor and ran away?"Blob asked her.

"Not without his slippers," Lance said, pointing to where they lay on the carpet. One was by the couch; the other had almost fallen behind the TV.  
"He's gonna get pretty cold feet then."  
"I think that might be the least of his worries," Mystique said, looking at the total disorder in the living room.

"Check and see if anything's missing," she said. "Maybe someone broke in."

"Or maybe Toad just trashed this place to get back at us." Blob said.

They searched the house, top to bottom, but nothing was missing. In fact, the bedrooms hadn't even been touched.  
"Something weird is going on."  
  


Toad,meanwhile, woke up in a strange place, with his hands tied behind him.

"Hey!" he groaned. "Let me outta here!"

"Why?" said a strange voice. Todd couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. "Why should I let you go?"  
"Why are you keeping me here?"  
"I do so hate those who answer a question with a question. Even if it is rhetorical," the voice said. A shadow moved across the wall--a very BIG shadow.  
_I'm gonna die,_ Todd thought.

"Why'd you do it?"

"All in good time."  
The shadow reared up again, and Todd could feel breath on the back of his neck. He was too afraid to turn around.

"You're not one of the X-Freaks,are you?"

"What I am," it hissed, "is not your concern."

"Says who?"

An excruciating pain hit him in the base of his spine and radiated outward. The mystery person had hit him with something. Hard.  
"You'll never get away with this," Todd murmured as he passed out.  
  
Meanwhile, Magneto was still at the hospital, keeping vigil by his son's bedside. He was startled to hear his phone ring.  
"Yes? What do you mean he's gone? Well, find him! I have more important things to worry about!"

He hung up in irritation and then shut off his phone. Maybe Mystique had had the right idea. Throw it down a toilet or something.

"We're on our own," Mystique said.

"You mean Toad's not gonna bug us non-stop anymore?" Blob said hopefully.

"Nope. I'm guessing he's gone for good."

"I doubt we'll be that lucky." Mystique sighed.

"You can't just give up on him! You gotta go find him!"  
"How?" Mystique raised an eyebrow.  
"I know how," Lance said. "Get your jacket."

Toad, meanwhile, was trying frantically to escape...but it was no good.  
"You're mine," the stranger said. "Now and forever."  
  
Mystique's eyes widened when she saw where they had ended up--the Xavier mansion.  
"We're not going to--"  
"We have to," Lance said. "Something really terrible could happen to Toad if we don't."  
"And that's a bad thing?"  
Lance didn't answer. He went up and rang the front doorbell.  
"Why don't we just break in?" Blob asked.  
"Cause they won't help us if we bust their door down!"

"You sure you want to do this,Mystique?"

She sighed. "No, I'm not sure, but we seem to be out of options."

So she knocked on the door...

Just by luck, exactly the person they wanted answered the door.  
"Ms. Darkholme," Brenda said, "what are **you** doing here?"

"Toad's disappeared."

"What do you mean, disappeared? He ran off?"  
"We don't know. That's why we need your help."

(A/N: yes, this is Brenda from Mindshadow! She likes to visit my other stories. Part 4 may be a little longer in coming, but it'll be worth the wait!)  
  
  



	4. Part 4

Part 4 

Toad, meanwhile, feared for his life...

"What do you want with me?" he asked his mysterious captor.  
"Your blood."

"My WHAT?"

"Your mutant DNA will create an army of super-powered slaves for me."  
"Couldn't you use someone else's? I'm kinda attached to my DNA."

The woman (he could see it was a woman now) glared at him. "You don't have a choice. Either give me what I want, or wind up in an unmarked grave..." Neither of those options particularly appealed to Toad.

"You're not gonna take all of it, are you?"

"That is not your concern."

"Whaddya mean? You're not gonna kill me, are you?"

The woman glared at Toad as if he'd insulted her mother. "You will hold your tongue! Or I'll cut it off."  
Eewww. Toad's tongue was too much a part of him to lose, so he kept quiet, wondering how much longer he had to live.

He didn't notice when the crazy woman left. How much time had passed? Hours? Days? Hard to tell in here.  
Suddenly there was a noise from the far end of the cell. He scooted down to find out what it was.  
_Probably a rat._  
No, not unless rats grew to the size of German Shepherds. There was a great gray lump in the far corner of the cell, and as he watched, it moved.  
_I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!_  
The lump turned over . . . and he found himself looking into the face of a girl about his own age.

"Hey," he said softly. "You okay?"  
She looked up at him. She was pretty, underneath the dirt. "Who are you?"  
"My name's Todd. I just got here. You been here for a while, yo?" It was a stupid question, but maybe her sense of time wasn't broken.  
"I don't know," she moaned. "Seems like I've always been here."  
So much for that theory.  
  
"Daddy?"  
Magneto looked down at his son in surprise. Pietro hadn't called him Daddy since he was . . . what, four or five?  
"What is it?"  
"I need you to--" He started coughing, and it seemed like forever till he caught his breath. "I need you to do something for me."  
"What is it?"  
"Find Wanda."  
Magneto sighed. "I've been trying for years. She's lost in the system."  
"You **have** to find her! She's in trouble!"  
"How do you know this?"  
Pietro shook his head. "I just know. Please find her."

Professor Xavier didn't know what to think when he saw Mystique standing outside his front door.

"It's an emergency," she explained. "Todd is missing, and we need someone who can help find him."  
"Do you think he's in some sort of trouble?"  
"I think he may be **starting** trouble somewhere. He's been nothing but trouble all night. When we were at the hospital--"  
"Wait a second," Scott Summers interrupted. "Hospital? What happened?"

"Pietro was really sick," Blob said, "and the docs might have to operate on him. We didn't know until now because Toad kept bugging Mystique about his stupid ice cream..."

"Pietro's ill?" Brenda asked. "I hope he's all right."  
"He will be," Mystique said. "Toad, on the other hand . . ."

Toad cowered in fear before his mysterious jailer . . .

. . .but she wasn't after him.  
She reached out for the girl at the far end of the cell. "Come on, little girl. Your time has come."  
"NO!" the girl screamed, and shrunk back as far as she could.  
Todd stepped in front of her. "Keep away from her!"  
The woman glared at him. "When did you get loose?"  
"I dunno . . . a while ago. I had to do something! You can't keep us here!"  
"Don't tell **me** what I can't do!"

"Wait just a cotton-pickin' minute here, bub." growled Wolverine. "You sayin' somebody grabbed Toad?"

"Yes. It looks that way, anyway. We have no clue who or why. I'd almost say they could have him . . . if it weren't for this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that he's in trouble." Mystique was pacing back and forth in the entry hall, beside herself with worry.

"What kind of trouble?" prompted Jean Grey.

"I wish I knew. I don't know who has him or what their intentions are."  
"What makes you think somebody has him?"

"When we came back from the hospital..." Lance explained about the disorder in the house.

"Ouch!" Kitty said. "Did whoever grabbed him leave any kind of note or anything?"

"No, nothing. It was like he just vanished off the face of the Earth."  
"Not that that wouldn't have been a good idea."

"Shut up, Fred." Lance snapped.

"Hey!"

"Do you have any clue where he might have been taken?" Professor Xavier questioned Mystique.

"None at all. I don't have any idea who it might have been--"  
"He's close by," Brenda said.  
They all looked at her.  
"He's inside some kind of abandoned building."

They all stared at her. "You're kidding!" gasped Kitty.

"Hang on . . . he's just on the limit of my range. Either that or something's blocking me."

Toad frantically beat on the walls of his prison after the woman locked him back in. She had taken the girl and left him there. But she hadn't tied him up again, so maybe there was hope.  
_Todd, are you there?_  
The voice in his head made him jump.

"Wha....who's there?"

_It's all right, it's only me._

"Brenda?"

_You have to tell me where you are so we can come and get you._  
"I don't know. I didn't exactly see the outside."

Then he paused. "What do you mean, we?"

_Your friends are all worried about you._

"Which ones?"

He had a sudden coughing fit which seemed to last forever. Lying on the cold stone floor didn't really help much.  
"You still there?"

_Yes, Todd._

"Good to know somebody's looking for me. I didn't think they liked me anymore."

Toad's companion in the cell looked at him strangely....

"Who are you talking to?" she asked hoarsely. What had that crazy woman done to her?  
"It's all right," Todd said. "Someone's coming to rescue us. I think."

"Who?"

"Some . . . ah, friends of mine. I think."  
_Who's there with you? I can't get a clear reading._  
"Uh . . . she didn't exactly tell me her name. Not that it matters, since we're both gonna die."  
_Not if I have anything to say about it._

"C'mon,do something!" Fred moaned at Kitty.

"What do you want **me** to do?"

Back in their dungeon,Toad and his companion nervously fretted,hoping the woman wouldn't come back....

"So what [b]is[/b] your name, anyway?" Todd asked the girl.

She looked at him with clouded eyes. "I can't remember."

Professor Xavier had just seen the rescue party off when the doorbell rang again. He opened it to find . . .

. . . the last person on Earth he'd expected.

"I need your help," Magneto said.


	5. Part 5

Part 5 

"With what?" asked an astonished Xavier.

"I need your Cerebro unit to track down a particular mutant."  
"Who?"  
"My daughter."  
**"Daughter?"** Xavier was in shock. All the years he'd known Magnus, and he never knew the man had a daughter.

"Yes." Magneto said. "I haven't seen her in years...."

"Then what's the urgency now?"

Magneto took a deep breath and sighed, "There is a woman out there who poses a serious threat to all mutants. I knew her years ago before I met Mystique...."

"Who is she? How exactly did you know her?"

"Her name," Magneto said, "was Michaela, at least when I knew her. We met at a seminar on genetic mutation...."

_Keep talking to me, Todd,_ Brenda "said" telepathically. _We're getting close._  
"Yeah, whatever," Todd muttered, so the crazy lady wouldn't hear him. He wanted to ask his cellmate what had been done to her, but the girl was sitting in a corner, arms wrapped around her knees, singing to herself. He couldn't make out the words.

"OK, Brenda, I'm still here." he said softly.

_Good. I think we're almost there. Do you know what kind of security the place you're in has?_

"No, man. I don't know nothin' except that the crazy lady's got big iron bars on the cell, yo."

_Is she the only person you've seen? You don't know if there's a guard or anything, do you?_  
"Uh . . . no. I mean, no, I don't know."

"Great." Wolverine sighed.  
"So for all we know, Madame Psycho could have her own private army guarding the place." Cyclops said.  
"Or there could only be an old rusty lock on the doors." Nightcrawler interjected hopefully.  
"In any case," Lance cut in, "the sooner we get Toad out of there, the better..."

"We're here," Brenda said.  
It was a squat cinderblock building that looked like a warehouse. The windows were boarded up. It didn't look like it had been used in months.  
There was a blob of something on the ground in front of the door. Lance recognized it immediately.  
"Strawberry ice cream. Todd's favorite flavor. He's definitely here."

Storm noticed a flicker of movement in the bushes.

Everyone assumed attack positions . . .  
. . . but it turned out to be a bird.

Nevertheless, they remained alert, realizing that there could still be guards lurking somewhere nearby. "Watch your backs, people." Wolverine instructed.

The front door was locked, but they found ways around that.

Cyclops burned a hole through the wall beside the door on one side,while Fred battered his way in on the other. "This looks easy so far."

"A little _too_ easy,bub,if you ask me."

"She's got no alarms, no security . . ."  
There was a metallic squeal from around a corner, and the group found themselves facing a squad of attack robots.  
" . . . except for the hardware," Cyclops amended.

"We're gonna die," said Spyke.


	6. Part 6

Part 6 

(Yay! Next-to-the-last part! Will be finished within the next week, I promise!)

"Know any good prayers?" Lance asked Nightcrawler.  
"_ Nein_. Do you?"

"Everyone split up and surround them," Wolverine ordered the group.

"Huh?" asked Fred.  
"Get down!" Jean grabbed him and pulled him to the ground just as one of the robots fired a blue energy beam at them.  
"Boy, this chick doesn't play around, does she?"

"You ain't kiddin', bub." Wolverine said, his adamantium claws fully extended.  
Inside the compound...

Todd heard the shots and moved up to the front of the cell, trying to see what was going on.  
"Is someone here?" the girl asked. It was the first coherent sentence she had spoken in over an hour.  
"I dunno. I hope they're on our side."

Mystique and Storm fought off a swarm of robots while Cyclops, Avalanche, and Blob tried to sneak around them to find out where Toad was being kept.  
  
  
"I've found her," Xavier said.  
"Where?"  
"She's in an old building on the edge of town. It used to be a furniture store." A map popped up on the holographic display.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Xavier pointed. "See those little dots?"  
"What about them?"  
"I've got a team there already."  
"What? How?"

"Brenda's established a psychic link with Toad," Xavier said, "and used it to guide the X-Men along with Toad's friends to where he's being incarcerated..."  
"Can this display be downloaded to the Blackbird's control panel?" Magneto quizzed him.  
Xavier cast Magneto a puzzled glance. "I suppose so..."  
"Good. I suspect that where we've found Toad, we may find Michaela as well..."  
  
"C'mon," Toad said to his cellmate, "we're getting out of here, yo." 

The girl straightened up. Something flickered across her features for a moment, something that looked like hope.  
"Daddy?" she whispered.

"Not quite," Cyclops said, "but we might be able to help you find him. Right now, though, we need to get you two out of here."  
"Suits me, yo." Toad said, hoisting his cellmate onto Cyclops' back. "Where's the rest of your crew?"  
"Outside going twelve rounds with Lady Headcase's buddies."  
  
Michaela watched in alarm from her private study as the battle transpired outside her compound. Her robot defenses were being decimated by the X-Men and their companions, and at the rate things were going she was in danger of losing her two prized mutant subjects....

It was time to call in the reinforcements.  
She flicked a switch. What looked like a display case on the far side of the room swung open, revealing a narrow passageway. At the end of it was a barred cell. Inside the cell was . . . her last resort.  
"How's Mummy's little precious?" she cooed.  
The thing inside the cell didn't even look human. Michaela had reworked its DNA so much that technically it **wasn't** human. It looked like the offspring of a snake and a goat, with some bear thrown in for good measure.   
She hadn't given him a name. She couldn't afford to become attached to it, even if it had begun life inside her own womb.  
"Time to come out and play."


	7. Part 7

Part 7 

Cyclops, Fred, Toad, and the girl hastened to flee the cell while the rest of the X-Men and the Brotherhood made short work of Michaela's defenses....

"Do you hear something?"   
There was a distant rumble.

"Unfortunately, I do."

The last of the robots was metallic junk on the warehouse floor. The rest of the X-Men joined their companions just in time to see the most grotesque monster they'd ever set eyes on.  
"Kill them all!" Michaela ordered her hideous creation; she was determined to make sure her two prized subjects didn't get away.... at any cost.  
"Fat chance, lady." Rogue said, leaping onto the monster's back and beginning to drain its powers. Simultaneously, Avalanche triggered small ground vibrations to knock the creature off balance. While it couldn't stop the vibrations, the thing did manage to throw Rogue off its back and into Cyclops' arms.  
Xavier and Magneto arrived moments later...

"Michaela, what have you **done**?" Magneto cried.  
She smiled. "Created the ultimate weapon."

"Not if I've got anything to say about it." Wolverine snarled, swinging his adamantium claws at the abomination.

The thing swung a backhand blow that caught him in the head and nearly knocked him off his feet. The strength of that blow was incredible.  
But Wolverine was never one to back down from a challenge. He kept coming at the creature every time it knocked him back. It bought the others time to chase after Michaela.  
"No," Magneto said, blocking their path. "Leave her to me."  
The girl who'd been in the cell with Toad raised her head. "Daddy, is that you?"

"Wanda?" Magneto murmured, not quite believing his eyes.

"Daddy!" Somehow she found the strength to get up and run to him. "Oh, Daddy, I knew you'd come for me!"  
"** Daddy**?" Toad said in shock. "Oh, no, not another one! They'll gang up against us! We won't have a chance!"  
"What are you talking about?" Rogue asked.

The creature roared, baring row after row of razor-edged teeth.  
"That."

"Get them out of here!" Cyclops ordered. "We'll handle this . . . uh, whatever."

"I don't know if we can." Lance shouted as Magneto tried to force the creature back.

Storm summoned up a hurricane force wind . . . but even that failed to stop the abomination. Slow it down a bit, maybe, but not stop it.  
But maybe just that little bit was all they needed to overpower it.

"Everyone hit it all at once!" Cyclops ordered.

To Michaela's dismay, the creature slowly wilted under the relentless assault of its adversaries....

She turned and tried to flee the room, but something--someone--blocked her path.  
"Going somewhere?" Magneto said.

"Out of my way, Magnus!" Michaela snarled.

"You think I'm going to just let you get away, and inflict more of your monstrosities on the world?"   
A metal bar that happened to be lying on the floor suddenly rose and flew over to pin her against the wall.

"GET THIS OFF ME NOW!" Michaela screamed.

"I'll think about it."  
  
About an hour later, the cops came and took Michaela away. The creature ended up in a government facility, along with most of the rest of Michaela's equipment.  
As for her captives . . .

Toad and Wanda were just glad to be out of that madhouse.

The X-Men took them back to the mansion and checked them over to make sure they were okay.

"Boy, am I glad to be out of that nuthouse, yo." said Toad, glancing behind him as the rest of the Brotherhood laid waste to what was left of Michaela's defense systems.

"We're glad you're okay," Lance found himself admitting. "How about we stop for ice cream on the way home?"  
"YAY!"

Back at the mansion...

Wanda finally emerged from a long bath. She felt so much better now that the grime of that place had been washed away.

There was a knock on the door. Rogue came in, carrying a pile of clothes. "I hope these fit you. You looked like my size."

"Thank you." She dressed and came downstairs, where her father waited for her.

As Wanda approached him, Magneto was, to his surprise, questioning many of his own long-held beliefs about Xavier's group. But philosophical ruminations, he decided, could wait for another time. The important thing right now was to start making up for lost time with his daughter....

"I never thought I'd say this," he said to Xavier, "but thank you."

"What will do you now?" Xavier asked as Wanda embraced her father.

"I think the first thing we should do," he said, "is stop by the hospital."  
"Who's in the hospital?" Wanda asked.  
"You'll see."

Back at the hospital, Pietro was feeling a bit better (the medication was kicking in), but he wondered if his father would keep his promise. Or if he could.

In the midst of his contemplations, Mystique walked in...

"Can I go home now?" Pietro asked.  
"Not yet," Mystique said. "There's someone here to see you."  
"Tell him I--"  
"Boo-Boo?" a voice said.  
He blinked several times. No, he wasn't dreaming. It really was her.  
"Wanda!"

"Long time no see."

_"Boo-Boo?"_ Lance sneered.  
"Don't ask," Pietro said. He embraced his sister for the first time in over ten years.

"What happens to Michaela now?" Kitty asked Xavier.

"She'll be put away somewhere where she can't hurt anyone ever again."  
"And that . . . thing?" Brenda asked.  
"I don't know, and I don't think I want to find out."   
The clock in the hall chimed a later hour than anyone had thought. "It's a school night," Xavier said. "I suggest you all get to bed, and we'll discuss this in the morning."

"I'll second that." Wolverine said.  
"Yeah, let's go home." Lance added.  
Toad looked at his fellow mutants and said," You guys go ahead, yo. I'll catch up with you later--I want to talk to Wanda."  
Mystique, who hadn't said a word in hours, looked at Xavier and Magneto....

"He hasn't mentioned dying once."  
"Dying?" Xavier asked.  
Mystique explained about what had gone on earlier that evening.

"Hey,"Toad said defensively," I couldn't help it!"

"I hope you're better now," Wanda said, squeezing his hand.  
"Uh . . . yeah."

In a prison cell, an angry Michaela vowed, "I'll get you, Magnus, and those rotten kids of yours, if it's the last thing I do!"  
  
They cleared out Rogue's old room so that Wanda could move in.

Two days later,Pietro was released from the hospital,and the entire Maximoff family celebrated by going out to dinner.  
There was just one problem.  
"I'm dying," groaned Fred,who had eaten his way through half the content's of Mystique's refrigerator.

"You're dying? **I'm** the one who's dying!" Lance complained while trying to hold his head on.  
"You're both wrong," Mystique said. She sniffled; it seemed she had picked up Todd's cold. "** I'm** dying."  
  
THE END


End file.
